Minutes of August 15, 2001 Meeting

The new Web page is set to debut on Monday, 8/20 (subsequently postponed
to 8/27). This will be a rolling changeover - not all pages will be
completely converted immediately.

"How Do I" pages for finding books and finding periodicals will need
minor
revision because of changes following the implementation of authorities in
IRIS.

Research Guides

The new Jazz guide is now available, and the press release is imminent.

The finding Aids page is being updated

Triveni Kuchi, the new Instruction Librarian at Kilmer, will be working
on a guide for sociology resources. Social Work resources may be
incorporated.

The guide to numeric data is almost ready for release.

Immediate Things

Ulrichs and MultexNet have been moved from the Forthcoming databases page
to the main Indexes and Databases page

ERIC needs an updated description.

Grove's Dictionary of Art and Biography and Genealogy Master Index have
descriptions written and ready to post.

The new format for the second-level page for Indexes and databases will
require that many of our older databases have their descriptions updated.

Instruction Liaison

The new Web pages for library instruction are almost completed. A
prototype can be viewed at [URL removed].

Leslie Murtha reported very briefly on having attended the ACRL
Instruction Immersion program. Plans are being developed to share
information about this experience with the library faculty.

General Notes

The new Media Services pages are up.

The new Hours pages will go up today.

Updating of Staff pages is a little behind schedule.

Art Library and other non-circulating collections

Sara suggested that there might be some way of indicating on the Hours
page which libraries do not circulate their collections. It was also
suggested that we consider adding word processing capabilities to computers
in these libraries to facilitate the use of materials within the buildings.
It was noted that a viable alternative is for people to use an e-mail
program to type their notes and mail them to themselves.

New Web Page

The committee reviewed the final version of the new Web page.

There are two sidebars - one for the top page, with buttons, and one for
the lower pages with links to the major categories from the first page.

The sticky arrows have been implemented.

The "Welcome New Users" icon will be removed after the first few weeks of
the semester. The New Users page can be found as a FAQ under
Ask-A-Librarian.

There is still a little clean-up work to be done to make sure that the
links on the top page and the headers on the lower pages match.

The following items have been added to the "How Do I" list:

find video or audio information

register a barcode

Staff Resources has been added as a link a the bottom of the list on the
main page.

The committee also reviewed the changes to the Indexes and Databases
pages. Links to discipline sectors are now available at the top of the
page, and the alphabetical list is divided in two. Links from either the
alphabetical list or a subject list go directly to the descriptive
material,
with a link to open the database. This does not change the click-depth of
the link to the database, but makes better use of space, and makes the
descriptive material more readily available.

There was some discussion about keeping the GO button used in the
previous
version. This creates some layout problems. It was decided that Sam would
experiment with some button designs and try to find one that could be
incorporated.

The layout of the descriptions was discussed, and some of the fields were
re-ordered. The new order will be:
Access -> Notes -> Description -> Sources -> Type of coverage -> Dates
covered ->Updating frequency ->Provider -> Print counterpart -> Help

Information about plug-ins will be moved to the Notes field.

The various merits and maintenance issues of the site map and site index
were discussed. Decision was made to continue to maintain the site index
and to have a modified site map.

Items missing on new page that were present on old page - Finding Aids
(moved to Research Guides page) and Web search tools (eliminated).

Web Page Consultant

The consultant has had a preliminary look at our site, and suggested that
we reconsider the name of the button "research shortcuts." This
designation
suggests a tutorial, rather than an expert's tool. "Quick Links" was
suggested as a substitute; various other ideas were considered. This
discussion was tabled for the time being. Further research may be
indicated.

Meeting closed at 11:30 AM, and adjourned to the Student Center for the WAC
Snack